And all Teresa’s reflections ended in this. If—what then?
Chapter Ten.
Peppina, Mrs Maxwell’s maid, having, as she often had, a note to take to the Marchesa di Sant’ Eustachio, turned in for some words with Nina, now promoted to the position of head of the kitchen, with a staff of two assistants, whom she governed merrily. The kitchen was still untidy. Assunta smilingly dragged out a chair from behind a barricade of heaped baskets; Fernanda, showing her white teeth, bore away in her arms a huge brown jar of vinegar. Nina had not been content until she had got two or three of these jars from Viterbo, of coarse highly-glazed pottery, with a fine free design of yellow on the brown. She now pointed out her treasure to Peppina with joyous pride.
“And our marchesa has two in the sala with all her other beautiful things,”—Nina exalted her family to the skies—“she took them away from me and left me nothing for the wine. But that, see you, was because she could find nothing like them in Rome. Rome is a poor place, for all they talk so much, and make one pay, pay, pay. Eh-h-h-h-h! Blessed Virgin, whether one has to pay! Spinach, tre soldi, onions, due soldi, a slice of gourd, a pepperino—I ask you what a pepperino is worth? Well, believe it or not, that great Mariaccia—daughter of a Jew I call her—when she brought her basket this morning, she asked quattro soldi! Quattro soldi!—Fernanda, child, there is the bell, fly! Here, stay! Take off thy apron, which the signora said should only be worn in the kitchen—the saints alone know why—and remember to say, ‘Buon giorno eccellenza.’—Quattro soldi, Peppina mia, true as that I sit here, and at Viterbo—ah, at Viterbo they do not rob like that.”
“It is true,” said Peppina, sighing. “In Rome it is hard to live.”
“But not for you. You are like me. Eh-h-h-h-h! It was a good day for me when Signora Bianco at the laundry told me these angels wanted a donna.” Peppina still looked gloomy.
“Why should you be their donna? Why should some have so much money, and others none at all?”
Nina’s funny little face squeezed itself into innumerable lines as she nodded her head sagaciously.